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The Craft of Research

The Craft of Research

Summary

This manual offers practical advice on the fundamentals of research to college and university students in all fields of study. The Craft of Research teaches much more than the mechanics of fact gathering: it explains how to approach a research project as an analytical process. The authors chart every stage of research, from finding a topic and generating research questions about it to marshalling evidence, constructing arguments, and writing everything up in a final report that is a model of authority. Their advice is designed for use by both beginners and seasoned practitioners, and for projects from class papers to dissertations. This book is organized into four parts. Part One is a spirited introduction to the distinctive nature, values, and protocols of research. Part Two demystifies the art of discovering a topic. It outlines a wide range of sources, among them personal interests and passions. Parts Three and Four cover the essentials of argument--how to make a claim and support it--and ways to outline, draft, revise, rewrite, and polish the final report. Part Three is a short course in the logic, structure, uses, and common pitfalls of argumentation. The writing chapters in Part Four show how to present verbal and visual information effectively and how to shape sentences and paragraphs that communicate with power and precision. "A well-constructed, articulate reminder of how important fundamental questions of style and approach, such as clarity and precision, are to all research."--Times Literary Supplement

Author Biography

Wayne C. Booth is the George Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Gregory G. Colomb is professor of English language and literature at the University of Virginia Joseph M. Williams is professor emeritus in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago

Table of Contents

Preface

p. xi

Research, Researchers, and Readers

p. 1

Prologue: Starting a Research Project

p. 3

Thinking in Print: The Uses of Research, Public and Private

p. 9

What Is Research?

p. 10

Why Write It Up?

p. 12

Why a Formal Report?

p. 13

Conclusion

p. 15

Connecting with Your Reader: (Re)Creating Your Self and Your Audience

p. 17

Creating Roles for Writers and Readers

p. 17

Creating a Relationship with Your Reader: Your Role

p. 19

Creating the Other Half of the Relationship: The Reader's Role

p. 22

Writing in Groups

p. 26

Managing the Unavoidable Problem of Inexperience

p. 30

Quick Tip: A Checklist for Understanding Your Readers

p. 32

Asking Questions, Finding Answers

p. 35

Prologue: Planning Your Project

p. 37

From Topics to Questions

p. 40

From an Interest to a Topic

p. 41

From a Broad Topic to a Focused One

p. 43

From a Focused Topic to Questions

p. 45

From a Merely Interesting Question to Its Wider Significance

p. 49

Quick Tip: Finding Topics

p. 53

From Questions to Problems

p. 56

Problems, Problems, Problems

p. 57

The Common Structure of Problems

p. 60

Finding a Good Research Problem

p. 68

Summary: The Problem of the Problem

p. 70

Quick Tip: Disagreeing with Your Sources

p. 72

From Problems to Sources

p. 75

Screening Sources for Reliability

p. 76

Locating Printed and Recorded Sources

p. 79

Finding Sources on the Internet

p. 83

Gathering Data Directly from People

p. 85

Bibliographic Trails

p. 88

What You Find

p. 88

Using Sources

p. 90

Three Uses for Sources

p. 91

Reading Generously but Critically

p. 95

Preserving What You Find

p. 96

Getting Help

p. 104

Quick Tip: Speedy Reading

p. 106

Making a Claim and Supporting it

p. 109

Prologue: Pulling Together Your Argument

p. 111

Making Good Arguments: An Overview

p. 114

Argument and Conversation

p. 114

Basing Claims on Reasons

p. 116

Basing Reasons on Evidence

p. 117

Acknowledging and Responding to Alternatives

p. 118

Warranting the Relevance of Reasons

p. 119

Building Complex Arguments Out of Simple Ones

p. 121

Arguments and Your Ethos

p. 122

Quick Tip: Designing Arguments Not for Yourself but for Your Readers: Two Common Pitfalls